is left of my life a gift worth while."

"Gift?" she queried steadily. "To whom, Reed?"

"Its Creator, when the time comes," he answered, with the slow
difficulty with which a strong man always touches such a theme. "Who
else?"

His sudden question, answering as it did to her own thoughts, astounded
her. Her face flushed, lighted, filled itself with a dazzling radiance
which, for the moment, Reed was powerless to interpret. For just that
single moment, Olive caught in her breath and held it. Then,--

"Why, to me," she answered simply. "Reed dear, you have made it
wonderfully well worth the asking. May I have it for my very own?"

Fifteen minutes later on, Ramsdell came up the stairs. When he had gone
down them stealthily and tiptoed through the lower hall, he wiped his
eyes, then blew his nose in raucous triumph.

"The one thing I 'ave halways 'oped would 'appen!" he said
impressively.

Four days afterward, Brenton came home again, came straight from the
burial service on the country hillside to take up his old life in the
wifeless home. As a matter of course, his first evening he spent with
Opdyke.

Opdyke, looking for change in him, was not disappointed. Change was
evident, and of a sort for which Opdyke had scarcely dared to hope. Of
sadness there was curiously little sign; the black band on his sleeve
was the only outward show of mourning, and Brenton's face explained the
lack. Even in the few days of his new experience, the old indecision
seemed to have left his face for ever, and with it much of the old
sadness. He carried himself more alertly, too, as if, for the future,
life were too full of purpose to permit of any indecision or delay.

Of his trouble, he said singularly little.

"Poor Catie! She died, loyal to me, and happy in her belief," he told
Reed briefly. "It was the end she would have chosen for herself. Next
time we meet each other, though, we shall understand each other better
and have better patience." And that was all he said, then or
afterwards. Instead, he congratulated Reed upon his new, great
happiness.

After a time,--

"Now, shall you go to Whittenden?" Opdyke asked him.

Brenton shook his head.

"No. My place is here. So far, I have never worked out much good from
any of the chances I've had given me. I'd better do it, here and now,
without wasting time by any further change. As for the quality of the
work, Opdyke, I've been thinking things, the past few days. There are
men